A family just bought a box of cereal from Walmart, but it expired in 1997

In 1997, Bill Clinton was president, everyone around the world was listening to the Spice Girls, and movigoers fell in love with the film Titanic. But apparently nobody was buying a particular box of Quaker Natural Granola.

A family in Lakewood, Colo., however, came across the box of cereal — now a piece of history — when they went to their local Walmart for a quick grocery shop and selected a box of Quaker 100% Natural Granola cereal earlier this week. They didn’t think anything of the packaging’s vintage appearance — until the next morning, when they took a bite from their cereal bowls.

Anthea Carelse was the first to notice something was a bit off with the taste, before checking for the expiration date. To her surprise, she came across the “best buy” stamp that read: February 22, 1997.

“I had about two bites, and that was it,” Anthea told ABC 10. Her husband, Josiah, on the other hand, didn’t put quite as much thought into it.

“I just started eating and thinking, ‘It just tastes funny. It must be OK,’” he said. Turns out, he finished an entire bowl of it despite his wife’s warnings.

Although Josiah is feeling fine, Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to Walmart to find out why the 21-year-old cereal — which is a decade older than the Carelse’s daughter — was on the shelf. “We take this claim seriously,” the company wrote in a statement. “However, the vintage granola hasn’t been returned to the store by the customer, we haven’t been given the opportunity to speak to the customer despite multiple attempts, and at this point we can’t verify the claim. We are committed to providing our customers the quality products they expect.”